New York, Jan 9, 2026, 10:55 AM EST — Regular session
- Costco shares were up about 0.8% in morning trade, extending Thursday’s rally after its December sales update
- December net sales rose 8.5% to $29.86 billion; comparable sales were up 7%, while digitally-enabled comps surged 18.9%
- Next up as a catalyst: Costco’s fiscal Q2 earnings call on March 5
Costco Wholesale shares were up about 0.8% at $922.60 in Friday morning trading. The stock has traded between $911.43 and $924.06 so far in the session.
The move came after Costco’s December sales report, a datapoint traders often lean on for an early sense of demand ahead of quarterly earnings. The company said net sales rose 8.5% to $29.86 billion in the five weeks ended Jan. 4. Comparable sales — sales at stores open at least a year — increased 7%. Digitally-enabled comparable sales, which include online orders, surged 18.9%. 1
Costco said comparable sales excluding gasoline and foreign exchange — a metric that strips out volatility from fuel prices and currency translation — increased 6.2% companywide and 6.3% in the U.S. Net sales for the first 18 weeks of fiscal 2026 climbed 8.3% to $101.83 billion. The company said it ran 923 warehouses worldwide and noted a pre-recorded message on the results will stay available through Jan. 14.
Costco’s sales update sparked a sharp jump on Thursday, with the shares up about 5% in afternoon trade, Investopedia reported. Analysts at William Blair said the report could “provide the stock with a much-needed boost.” UBS analysts, meanwhile, said they’d seen market expectations for comparable sales in a 3% to 5% range heading into the print. 2
Analysts tracked by MarketScreener put the mean price target around $1,030, about 13% above Thursday’s close of $915.31. The gap has tightened somewhat over the past two sessions. Still, after a run of choppy trade in the shares, it remains a marker bulls point to. 3
Still, a one-month snapback doesn’t answer the larger question: can Costco keep traffic and ticket growth steady after the holiday pop wears off? Headline comparable-sales figures can also lurch month to month on gasoline prices and currency swings, and for a low-margin retailer, cost pressure is always a variable.
For the time being, investors who want more detail can turn to an audio file covering the December sales update on Costco’s investor site. 4
Costco’s next set piece is its fiscal second-quarter earnings call, slated for March 5 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time. 5
